Spanish Olive Oil Exports Top One Million Tons as Prices Fall

Summary

Spanish olive oil exports exceeded one mil­lion met­ric tons for the first time since the 2021/22 crop year, with a 35 per­cent increase com­pared to the pre­vi­ous year. Despite the increase in export vol­umes, the value of Spanish olive oil exports decreased by 17 per­cent, lead­ing to con­cerns about the impact of low-priced imports from Tunisia on domes­tic prices and calls for tighter con­trols on Tunisian olive oil imports.

Spanish olive oil exports sur­passed one mil­lion met­ric tons for the first time since the 2021/22 crop year, accord­ing to recently pub­lished gov­ern­ment data.

Following a rebound har­vest in the 2024/25 crop year, in which Spain pro­duced 1.38 mil­lion met­ric tons of olive oil, exports climbed to 1.03 mil­lion tons. That fig­ure rep­re­sents a 35 per­cent increase com­pared to the pre­vi­ous year and is 11 per­cent above the four-year aver­age.

Despite the surge in export vol­umes, the value of Spanish olive oil exports fell to €5.05 bil­lion, down 17 per­cent from the pre­vi­ous crop year. Even so, export rev­enues remained 17 per­cent above the four-year aver­age.

As a result, the aver­age value per unit of exported olive oil, mea­sured in euros per kilo­gram, declined by 39 per­cent com­pared to 2023/24 and fin­ished slightly below the four-year aver­age.

Data pub­lished by Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) showed that Italy remained the lead­ing des­ti­na­tion for Spanish olive oil, with exports to the coun­try ris­ing by 69 per­cent.

Shipments by vol­ume to the United States, Portugal and France also increased, while exports to the United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico and Brazil declined com­pared to the pre­vi­ous year.

On the import side, higher domes­tic pro­duc­tion after two con­sec­u­tive his­tor­i­cally low har­vests led to a 16 per­cent decrease in olive oil imports by vol­ume. Import val­ues fell even more sharply, declin­ing by 47 per­cent.

Import vol­umes declined from nine of Spain’s ten largest sup­pli­ers, with the excep­tion of Portugal. Portugal, Spain’s lead­ing sup­plier with approx­i­mately 55 per­cent of the mar­ket share, saw exports to Spain edge up to 113,840 met­ric tons.

Imports from Tunisia, which have drawn increased scrutiny fol­low­ing alle­ga­tions of large-scale ille­gal sales to Spanish buy­ers, slipped slightly to 54,210 tons. Tunisia nev­er­the­less remained Spain’s sec­ond-largest sup­plier, account­ing for 26 per­cent of the mar­ket.

Separate pro­duc­tion data pub­lished by MAPA showed a strong start to the 2025/26 crop year. Spain pro­duced 42,400 met­ric tons of olive oil dur­ing the first two months of the har­vest, a 16 per­cent increase com­pared to the same period in 2024/25 and eight per­cent above the four-year aver­age.

Exports dur­ing the open­ing two months of the crop year rose sharply to 78,600 tons, while imports remained sig­nif­i­cantly lower than in the pre­vi­ous four years, total­ing 11,000 tons.

Even so, Tunisia’s role as Spain’s sec­ond-largest sup­plier has taken on added impor­tance amid grow­ing con­cern among pro­ducer groups about the impact of low-priced imports.

A poten­tially record-set­ting har­vest in Tunisia has height­ened fears among Spanish farm­ers and millers that an influx of low-priced extra vir­gin olive oil could place down­ward pres­sure on domes­tic prices.

According to the olive oil trad­ing plat­form Oleista, Spain’s extra vir­gin olive oil prices at ori­gin cur­rently stand at €4.58 per kilo­gram, with prices in Andalusia slightly higher at €4.81. By com­par­i­son, Tunisian extra vir­gin olive oil is sell­ing at €3.78 per kilo­gram.

These con­cerns prompted the Association of Young Farmers (Asaja) in Córdoba to call on Spain’s Food and Information Control Agency (AICA) to tighten con­trols on Tunisian olive oil imports to ​“ensure that this prod­uct meets the same legal and qual­ity require­ments as those applied to oil pro­duced in Spain.”

The asso­ci­a­tion urged AICA to require Tunisian olive farms and mills export­ing to Spain to sub­mit the same doc­u­men­ta­tion demanded of Spanish pro­duc­ers.

“It is essen­tial to apply uni­form cri­te­ria to avoid mar­ket dis­tor­tions and pro­tect Spanish farm­ers,” Asaja Córdoba said. ​“It makes no sense for Spanish olive grow­ers to strictly com­ply with leg­is­la­tion if prod­ucts from other coun­tries enter the mar­ket with­out being sub­ject to the same require­ments.”

The request fol­lows sim­i­lar calls from the Coordinator of Farmers’ and Ranchers’ Organizations, which recently urged the gov­ern­ment to halt Tunisian olive oil imports.

Francisco Elvira, sec­re­tary-gen­eral of COAG Jaén, claimed that as much as 100,000 tons of Tunisian olive oil is enter­ing Spain and depress­ing prices. In some cases, he alleged, blended oils are sub­se­quently sold as Spanish olive oil.